The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-11-02
The PEASANT BRIDE.
Romantic story ofa Rich aud Frigid
Russian Prince, aud His Marriage.

Russian Prince, and His Marriage.
The late Prince Peter Sayn Wittgen-
stein, says the Paris correspondent of
The New York. Tribune though his
title and his grandfather, Marshal Witt
genstein, were German, as were also
his father and half-brothcrs, was born
and remained Russian. lie was nm
officer of the ears guard, and for
many years military attachc al the
Russian embassy here. He was fab
r,lllously rich. His mother was the
kIress of the richest branch of the
lziwil family, and was seized OF es-
rs in Russia on which there were
gether 125, 600 scrfs. After mi
p5rity in which she was plundered by
commission of trustees aud guardians,
there remained to her only S22, 500
year. Her husband, the son of Mar
shall Wittgenslein, undertook a series
of lawsuits to make the punderers dis
gorge. He got out of them so, 800, 600
cash, and the enormous estates which
her son has enjoyed ever since his in
fancy. They were chief, in Russia,
but there was Polish estate bringing
in Il yearly income of SlS7, 800. which
he came into joint. with the
Princess Hohenlohe. now Statthcl-
term of Alsace-Lorraine, his full
sister. 1t was whispered that the late
prince of Sayn Wttgenstein was the
sor of che Car Nicholas, who, when he
was grand duke, made up to Princess
Stephanie and was not discouraged. A
consciousness on the part of Nicholas
of the illegal father having discover
ed that this was so was the cause of the
bitter and undying hatred which he
manifested toward the injured husband
and which obliged the latter to out
Russia and settle in Germany with his
second wife. nee Princess Baratnsky,
who in her husbands lifetime began
\2Qve affair with List the composer. At
rate. Prince Peter Sayn Wittgen-
IN. who has just died, was the i'm
lge of the most naughty and unbend-
ing of the Russian czars, and had that
peculiar stare of Nicholas which Queen
Victoria in writing of him mentions.
The blue iris of the large and widely
opened eye was small. and whenever
the lid was not down appeared encir-
cled with white. This was an unpleas-
ant ugliness. But otherwise he was a
very fine-looking man with a correct,
pseudo-Greek profile. At review in
the full-dress uniform of the Russian
guard, the prince was really an impos-
ing parsonage. He was brought up at
the court of st. Petersburg. which, be-
fore the nihilists sobered it little was,
as his legal father said in his will, the
most frivolous and corrupt in the
world
Well, Prince Peter had great con-
tempt for women; so much so tia
twenty years ago he was regarded rs a
confirmed bachelor The Princess
Metcherski, who became the wife of
Prince Paul Demdoff, and the Princess
&I0ubetskoi, who succeeded her as that
nlonaire's second spouse, we're
among those who were thrown ut his
head by ambitious mothers. He was
talked of in connection with various
beauties of the imperial court; but his
alleged relations with them were not to
their honor. and though he went to
the dinners and suppers of the brilliant
cocottes who cut such dash in the
time of the second empire. they never
seemed to exercise any fascination upon
him. He was called 'the northern
c Gle by the princess Mctternch. and
king Frost" Yet this cold. stately
man. who despised nearly every woman
whom he knew and passed for being a
pisogynist, was capable of burning
nd romantic and an enduring pas
on and may be said to have died of
roken heart, because his wife went to
he grave before him after union
or long time secret-of nearly TWEEN
BY years.
She was servant in Breton inn
when he first saw her, He had gone
to Brittany to see one of those pictu-
rescue religious meetings. half pagan.
half Christian, and wholly Breton.
known at Pardons. | saw his bride in
urls good many years ago. She was
Staying with Breton woman, of hum
BILE extraction like herself, who had led
a rather curious sort of life. Princess